1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscopic treatment instrument.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-184366, filed Jul. 4, 2006, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an endoscopic treatment instrument is used in which it is inserted in a body cavity through a channel of an endoscope to incise or cut an affected part, which is an object to be treated, of living tissue. As an example, there has been proposed an endoscopic treatment instrument in which an affected part of a patient's body is held by means of an opening and closing operation of a pair of arm portions extendable and retractable relative to an insulating sheath and then the thus-held affected part is excised or fixed by supplying thereto a high-frequency electric current or energy (see, e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 5-42167).
With this endoscopic treatment instrument, even if the affected part is too large to be held by a snare or the like, by holding the affected part with the pair of the arm portions and by subsequently supplying a high-frequency electric current to the pair of the arm portions, it is possible to efficiently carry out treatment of the thus-held part.
In the aforesaid conventional endoscopic treatment instrument, by slenderizing or thinning the arm portions, the contact area with respect to an object to be treated can be minimized and the current density can be raised. However, the force required for holding the object to be treated is inevitably decreased.